Last Born Of The Desdemona Chapter 301: Opening Ceremony [8]

Chapter 301 – Opening Ceremony [8]

DING! DING! DING!

As those familiar sounds echoed across the rocky field, both teams watched as their surroundings shifted into something else entirely.

They now found themselves within a sprawling wild forest, massive green trees rising with such a thick canopy of leaves that the sky itself was barely visible.

Team Klaus sprang into motion instantly, instinctively gathering around the crystal.

Natalia moved closer, touched the crystal, and it vanished inside the mirror embedded in the necklace she wore.

Keisha stepped beside her, holding her hands, a nervous, wavering smile on her face.

Klaus and Love stood together, their expressions, for once, pletely serious.

Omm Min Jambar stood off to the side, staring at the ring on his hand. Inside his mind, a voice whispered constantly:

’mander...what’s the plan? What’s the tactic, O Undefeated!’

Omm didn’t respond. His expression stayed calm and steady. This had been his daily life ever since he’d first used his Skill and obtained what the voice liked to call herself: the Ring of Frosted Past.

It was a female voice that whispered endlessly in his mind, calling him mander...and sometimes telling him stories from a time long past. A time when talented people were born...a time when those beings still walked the living world.

Omm couldn’t tell where truth ended and fiction began with what the voice told him. But regardless, the fact that a race called the Paleor — pale-skinned, cannibalistic, cruel, and endlessly hungry for conquest — didn’t exist in this world was a forting thought.

And he knew the voice was harmless, so after so many days together, Omm had e to enjoy her pany.

Just...

’Can you stay quiet for a bit?’

’mander! You must remember! Undefeated, tell them the plan! Tell them!’

But at that moment, there was no plan to be made. No, they all knew it would be a wasted effort.

Facing off against a level of power like the second year’s top 10, trying to cobble together a plan on the spot, mid-battle, with a team that had never fought together before, was a fool’s errand.

There simply wasn’t time for that.

So they abandoned the idea entirely and settled on one simple objective: go for the enemy crystal no matter what, and protect their own.

"We’ll improvise." Klaus said.

Right then, all five second-year players burst through the dense forest from different directions — some in the air, some on the ground, others emerging from the ground itself.

Cassius cracked his neck, crimson fire surging, followed by white flame, twisting and bubbling across his body until it enveloped him entirely, "I’ll take the Palatine." He said, "Think you can handle the rest?"

Klaus grinned, wind whipping up around him, sharp and merciless, "Of course, bastard."

And with that, Cassius’s body vanished, like a flame snuffed out by a sharp gust. A heartbeat later, he reappeared directly in front of the speeding Copycat, the temperature spiking exponentially.

Copycat didn’t have time to fully stop himself, eyes widening as Cassius pulled his right arm back, the motion rippling the air, his hand clenched into a tight fist.

Then, detonating the blood around his fist to amplify both lethality and speed, he threw the punch with everything he had, a wide grin spreading across his face.

A resounding explosion followed, the air scorching hot enough to set the trees ablaze.

In that instant, everything else vanished from Copycat’s vision, narrowing to the sight of a flaming fist that seemed to swallow the entire world.

"Hey buddy, shall we?"

That was all he heard before the punch crashed into his left cheek.

The flesh burned and blackened, bones cracking and caving inward, before blood sprayed outward in a fountain, his head snapping back, his body sent flying like a loosed arrow.

Copycat’s body tore through every tree in his path, sending them crashing to the ground, dust billowing, the impact so violent it felt like an earthquake.

Cassius gave him no room to recover.

Wings of white flame sprouting from his back, he dove through the forest with blinding speed, leaving scorched air trailing behind him.

But he flapped to an abrupt halt, planting his feet forward, stopping himself just in time before headbutting a wall of black diamond materializing directly in front of him.

His senses flared, screaming danger. He lowered his head and saw an alligator emerging from a shadow gate, jaws stretched wide open.

The same thing happened above him: a wild, ferocious sabertooth this time, fangs dripping with green poison.

Cassius raised both arms, palms facing the two shadow beasts. His palms began heating up, deepening to crimson, fire spurting like blood from a wound before erupting, engulfing the creatures.

Or so he thought.

The shadows vanished before the fire reached them, as a blinding light flashed above him.

Cassius clenched his fists, halting his attack, and looked up just in time to see Copycat, wielding a massive hammer raised toward the sky, sunlight glinting off it. His face was steadily healing under a green aura.

The wall of black diamond shattered into hundreds of fragments. Some of those fragments flowed and twisted around the hammer, coating it entirely, while others simply drifted midair.

’Oh my.’ Cassius thought, moving to react, only for Copycat to appear at his left instantly, swapping places with a shard of black diamond that had been there a moment before.

Without mercy, Copycat swung the full weight of the hammer straight at his face.

Cassius reacted quickly, folding his wings and arms in front of his face just in time to absorb the blow.

The impact was unbelievably heavy. So heavy the Last Born’s eyes bulged in shock as his flame wings collapsed entirely, the bones in his forearms shattering under the strain.

He groaned as he was hurled backward, plummeting like a falling meteor. But before hitting the ground, thin threads materialized, wrapping around his waist.

Then he felt himself yanked back upward. Cassius forced his eyes open through the pain in his arms, spotting Copycat holding the threads in one hand, the other clenched into a fist.

Once Cassius was within striking range, Copycat grinned and drove a punch straight into his left shoulder:

"Copied Skill: Fracture."

The punch landed, and Cassius felt as though his shoulder had turned to glass, shattering against the ground.

He coughed, blood spilling from his lips.

Agony flooded his mind, but he used the moment to deliver a midair, white-flaming kick to Copycat’s face. His grip loosened, and Cassius fell.

At the same time, two crimson portals opened on either side of Copycat, chains bursting out to wrap around each of his arms.

The Palatine’s eyes widened as both sides began pulling him toward the portals, threatening to tear him apart.

Cassius smeared his own blood into needles midair and hurled them at Copycat.

Feeling as though he were about to be split in two, Copycat activated his Third Skill.

"Saved Skill: Atomic Sweat."

Cassius cursed as his already-wounded shoulder, where Copycat had struck, burst into flame, burning his flesh deep enough to expose the fractured, crumbling bone beneath.

The sight was horrific.

He hit the ground, falling onto his back. He sucked in a deep breath, gritting his teeth against the pain.

Cassius activated his Bloodflame, focusing it on the wounds along his shoulder and forearms.

The fire began healing him as he pushed himself back up. He looked ahead and saw Copycat rolling his shoulder, a green healing aura wrapped around his body.

Their eyes locked, and slowly, matching cold smiles spread across their lips:

"Round two, sucker."

The fight continued, relentless.

Meanwhile, the other students were already locked into their own battles across the forest.

Keisha and Natalia fought together against Joykiller, a tall woman with short black hair and grey eyes. A wide smile stretched across her face as she wielded two sharpened bone-blades like daggers.

Joykiller moved with cold efficiency, weaving and striking mercilessly toward both Natalia and Keisha.

Her left arm snapped toward Keisha’s right shoulder, striking like a lunging snake.

Keisha planted her foot for better footing, twisting her body to evade.

Joykiller’s bone dagger whistled past Keisha’s face. But before Keisha could feel relief, Joykiller’s elbow, sheathed in hard white bone, cracked squarely against her jaw in the same motion.

Keisha’s head spun, vision blurring on all sides.

Joykiller followed with a twisting kick to her left flank, sending Keisha reeling backward, spit flying from her mouth.

But midair, a mirror materialized just behind Keisha and swallowed her whole. Another mirror opened above Joykiller, and Keisha emerged with pained eyes, palm facing down toward the second-year student.

With hardened eyes, essence surged, and a blast of frost erupted.

Simultaneously, a mirror opened beneath Joykiller’s feet, and Natalia’s hands reached out, gripping her legs, immobilizing her.

The frost blast struck true, but the fourth ranker had already conjured a wall of white bone in front of herself, blocking most of the damage.

Sharp, needle-like bones then erupted from her feet, piercing through Natalia’s hands, causing her to cry out, release her grip, and vanish back inside her mirror.

Keisha kept attacking, now wielding her silver rapier, wreathed in frost.

Joykiller laughed, shifted her grip on her dagger, and thrust upward.

The impact sent Keisha’s arm shaking violently, and Joykiller discarded her right bone dagger, instead grabbing the rapier bare-handed, her fist wrapped in bone.

Keisha’s eyes widened as Joykiller yanked her forward, then slammed her down onto the ground with bone-breaking force.

The air was knocked from her lungs, and she coughed painfully, mind going blank for a heartbeat...enough time for Joykiller to bring her other bone-wrapped hand down toward Keisha’s chest.

But another mirror opened just to Joykiller’s right, and Natalia emerged, palm aimed toward her.

"Second Skill—!"

Joykiller spun to face Natalia as though anticipating her arrival, slapping a hand over the girl’s mouth.

Without hesitation, she clenched her jaw tightly for a firmer grip, cracking bone, sending a searing bolt of pain through Natalia’s mind.

Joykiller didn’t care in the slightest, hurling her down onto the ground, right on top of Keisha, who was already trying to flee.

But seeing her friend land beside her, Keisha gritted her teeth, slowed her escape, and reached out to help Natalia up before running.

That was exactly what the second year’s fourth ranker had been waiting for.

Seeing them in that vulnerable state, she activated her Second Skill, Nest of Bones, causing the ground around Keisha and Natalia to erupt with bone, closing in around them like a snapping jaw.

Both girls’ danger senses blared loudly.

The Heiress of Silver reacted instinctively, raising her palm toward Natalia and activating her Second Skill, Ice Bombs.

Natalia’s eyes flashed as she conjured a mirror in front of her own face, swallowing the two ice bombs whole.

A mirror opened above Joykiller. She snapped her head toward it, only for another to open just beneath her feet — right where the ice bombs now waited.

Her face twisted as the bombs detonated, freezing both her feet solid, biting cold shooting sharp pulses of pain up her legs.

At the same time, her attack faltered from the distraction, giving Natalia and Keisha the chance to burst free before the nest fully sealed shut.

Still, the bones were sharper than expected, piercing through them both, some digging deep.

Natalia pressed her lips together, blood dripping at the corners, and clenched her fist as she put distance between herself and the enemy.

The sound of shattering glass rang out as shards of mirror rained down over the still-frozen Joykiller.

Once a few meters clear, Natalia pulled the two bone shards from Keisha’s back, and Keisha did the same for her.

Keisha sighed in relief, lips trembling, before freezing both their wounds to stop the bleeding.

The two childhood friends now stood side by side, watching their opponent, briefly safe from the mirror-shard assault.

Joykiller hardened her legs with another layer of bone, shattering Keisha’s frost.

She looked at them for a moment, then smiled, a trickle of blood staining her lips, "You’re not too bad." She said, voice hollow, an intense essence coating her form, "Third Skill: Bone Armor."

The two childhood friends cursed as Joykiller was slowly encased in white bone armor, transforming her into something monstrous.

They exchanged a look, sharing crooked smiles, before activating their own abilities.

—End of Chapter 301—